Google's Project Loon isn't on our radar much here in the US because we have expansive high-speed internet access. That's not the case everywhere, though, and it's a problem Project Loon aims to solve. According to Google, a single balloon can apparently provide LTE service to a region the size of Rhode Island. I could have baited you with "a whole state" in the headline, but this is still pretty impressive.

A fresh release of Play Music is going out to devices, and it brings a bit more consistency to another one of Google's apps. Now the navigation menu that extends from the side of the screen will reach up through the notification bar.

Left: Old, Right: New.

That's not the only element of the interface that's reaching upwards. When you go to play a track, you will find that the album artwork extends to the top of the screen as well.

Waze has bumped its Android app up to version 3.9.4, and it's asserting that the app is faster. How much faster? 85%. That's an oddly specific number, but whatever. All that matters is that users should be able to pull up locations and routes more quickly.

The big feature in this release is the new Traffic Bar. This little meter gives you an estimate of how long you will be stuck in a traffic jam.

How much will Huawei's slick new Android Wear device cost? That seems to be the major decision factor for a lot of Android Police readers, impressive looks and features aside. When Huawei announced its round Wear watch at MWC, it unaccountably forgot to mention the price, only saying that it would be available in "more than 20 countries" whenever it launches. A week later we've got a slightly better idea of what it will cost, at least in Europe: somewhere around the €349 mark.

There's a new version of Chrome Beta available in the Play Store, though it doesn't seem to add a whole lot to the app itself. That means that the features from the last beta graduate to the stable build, which you can get in the Play Store (if you're patient) or at the APK Mirror link below (if you're not). The biggest user-facing change is the ability to "pull" down from the top of a page to refresh it, a gesture already seen in various other Google apps like Gmail.

Google just announced the new Chromebook Pixel today, two days after Apple unveiled its new Macbook, and for all the differences those two laptops will have, they also have one very important thing in common: a USB3.1 Type C connector. That connector is used to charge them, as well as to transfer data, hook up external displays, or most any other USB accessory. This is very exciting.

USB3.1 Type C is fully reversible and finally does away with the most annoying aspect of modern USB cables: multiple port types. USB3.1 will finally eschew micro, mini, type B, and other weird-ass ports in favor of a single port design that is much smaller (and reversible, did I mention reversible?) than the existing full-sized USB A style.

Along with a fancy new hardware-focused Google Store, there's a shiny new version of the super-premium Chromebook. Google just threw the Chromebook Pixel 2015 up on its page in two models: one with an Intel Core i5 2.2Ghz processor for $999 (considerably less than the original) and one with a 2.4Ghz Core i7 for $1299. Sales appear to be limited to the United States at the moment.

The i5 model is ostensibly the low-end version, but even that is fairly super-powered compared to other Chromebooks. It comes with a 32GB SSD drive for storage and a generous 8GB of RAM - double the original Pixel and twice as much as any current Chromebook on the market.

Until now if you wanted a Nexus phone, Nest Thermostat, or some other device sold by Google, you'd go to the Play Store device section. Well, not anymore. Google has just launched the Google Store, a hub for all things Google with listings for phones, tablets, smartwatches, Chromebooks, and more. Basically, hardware is in the Google Store, and software is in Google Play.